LOOKING AT VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE:
GROTTOS OF THE AMERICAN MIDWEST
Text and photos by Susan A. Niles
(niless@lafayette.edu)
Anthropologists and folklorists
are interested in the things that people make in order to understand the ideas
by which they order their world. Throughout the American Midwest are examples
of a distinctive folk building tradition. Known locally as grottos, these
structures are built of concrete studded with glass, stone, ceramics, and
sometimes whole objects. Such
constructions are good examples of vernacular architecture.
Vernacular architecture includes all the buildings that are constructed using traditional materials and to traditional forms by builders not schooled in the formal architectural tradition of their society. The anonymously-built log cabins, barns, and springhouses that can be seen along country roads are good examples of vernacular architecture. Although the grottos discussed here were built by people whose names we know, the builders were, similarly, working outside the formal art tradition and were making architecture in the folk tradition.
This
web site is designed to give a visual and verbal tour of some of my favorite
Midwestern grottos. Some of them are
religious, others adamantly secular, but all are terrific examples of the
lively tradition of folk architecture that continues in that part of the
world.
To
begin your tour, choose a site from the menu on the left.
Text
and photos copyright, Susan A. Niles
Last
revised: 5/15/2000